DUBUQUE AUDUBON

Dubuque Audubon May Program

Driftless Area Research on Red-shouldered Hawks and Cerulean Warblers (& More)

Thursday, 5/14/26
6:30 PM Annual Meeting
6:45 PM Social Time
7 – 8 PM Program

EB Lyons Interpretive Center
8991 Bellevue Heights Road
Dubuque, IA 52003
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Jon Stravers, director of Driftless Area Bird Conservation, will present summaries of Red-shouldered Hawk monitoring conducted each year since 1982, as well as summaries of Cerulean Warbler surveys conducted each year since 2009 in the Effigy Mounds/Yellow River Forest Bird Conservation Area of Northeast Iowa.

Red-shouldered Hawks are listed as an endangered species in Iowa. For the first 35 years, our surveys showed a relatively stable or even and slowly expanding population in Northeast Iowa. However, recent surveys have shown a drastic decline in nesting Red-shoulder nesting activity along the Mississippi River – most likely due to an increase in flood events and significant tree mortality in some sections of the Upper Mississippi Refuge.

Cerulean Warblers are one of Iowa’s rarest nesting warblers.  Our initial surveys in 2009 thru 2012 revealed a somewhat unknown population of this species in Northeast Iowa.  Subsequent surveys revealed a surprisingly dense and relatively stable population of Ceruleans, especially in Yellow River State Forest and Effigy Mounds National Monument.  These findings were a critical factor in the Effigy Mounds/Yellow River Forest Bird Conservation Area being designated as “globally significant” in 2013.

With the support of Iowa Audubon and several Audubon Chapters and several government agencies, and with the help of a variety of younger field assistants, these projects have continued through the years. 

PLUS: In the tradition of making this an interesting program, Jon will also include provocative bird photos from his work in the mountains of Costa Rica, from a season in the Arctic Wilderness on Baffin Island, and from his years of raptor migration work in the Manzano Mountains of New Mexico.